'A tonic for the Nation', The Festival was intended to cheer us all up after WW2, and incidentally to celebrate the centenary of the 1851 Great Exhibition. The symbol for the Festival was designed by Abram Games. The exhibition on the South Bank ran 4 May – 30 September. Gracie Fields performed at the open-air cabaret which closed the event.
All the Festival buildings on the South Bank except the Royal Festival Hall have since been demolished and replaced by other buildings forming the much-loved (British irony) arts complex known as The South Bank. The Festival of Britain was a nationwide event with other sites in London, including: the Pleasure Gardens in Battersea (3 May – 3 November) and the Live Architecture Exhibition in Poplar (3 May – 30 September), originally 'Neighbourhood 9' but then renamed the 'Lansbury Estate', after George Lansbury. , and have all done good posts about this Estate. The City of London laid out a garden beside St Paul's, Festival Gardens.
The Festival Pleasure Gardens were installed in the northern part of Battersea Park. These included a water-garden and a tree-walk. There was also a fun fair on the section between Central Avenue and what is now the children's zoo. The of many of the items.
We've found a few of the lovely architectural "Award for Merit" plaques. But we cannot find anything about how these were selected, nor how many were presented, in London.
2019: spotted a Festival of Britain bench in an Essex village.
2019: In the 1957 film 'The Key Man' / 'Life at Stake' (not be be confused with the 1955 film with the same two titles), at about 57 mins, two characters meet in the under Waterloo Bridge, left over from the Festival. This nice piece of modernist architecture remained until 1962.
2023: An email from 'Londonist: Time Machine' reminded us that the recreation of Sherlock Holmes’s study, now to be found upstairs at The Sherlock Holmes pub near Charing Cross, was created for the Festival of Britain. The states that it was held at "Abbey House, Baker Street, London NW1, May - September 1951". Often described as Holmes's study, the recreated room is described in the catalogue as his living room.
2025: reported that the escalator at Alperton Station had been taken from the Dome of Discovery at the Festival of Britain. It had fallen out of use in 1988, was subsequently decommissioned and is now set to be replaced with a lift.
Sources include: .
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